by Michelle Fox
"Why? Why me? Why now? Why are you killing people?"
A coordinated assault from Cal and Jackson kept Zion from answering my questions. Cal used his head like a fist, ramming it into Zion's face and Jackson darted between his alpha's legs to attack from that angle.
Things moved in a blur for several seconds. I tracked the fight, but barely kept up with who was doing what to whom. My heart sank, though, when Zion did a back flip over Cal, arcing high in the sky and coming down to land in front of the alpha. Then, moving too fast for anyone to stop him, he shoved his fingers into Cal's throat and ripped out his esophagus, spine and anything else that was in there.
Blood gurgled and sprayed, dark even under a full moon. Cal collapsed to his knees. Zion dropped down with him, and using both hands, cracked the alpha's chest open like a nut. Jackson jumped on his back, preventing me from using the gun. I wouldn't have been able to pull the trigger anyway, I was shaking too badly.
Cal was dying right in front of me. My eyes didn't want to see it, and my brain had frozen, refusing to produce anything but shock. This was a movie and I was just the projector lens. I saw it all, but found it incomprehensible.
Zion shrugged off Jackson's wolf and yanked something out of Cal's chest. Turning around, he pulled Cal up in front of him with one hand and raised the other up high, showing off the alpha's heart.
"Back off, or I'll kill the rest of you." He smiled, pleased with himself.
He brought Cal's heart to his lips and sank his fangs into it, slurping up the blood inside. What was left of Cal slumped to the ground. Air and blood collided in his last breath, making a strange whistling sound.
The alpha of Huntsville was dead.
Jackson howled and redoubled his efforts to attack the vampire, but Zion seemed to anticipate every move. More bones cracked and Jackson moved slower and slower, but he didn't give up. An adrenaline surge hit me and I ran from side to side looking for a shot I could take, finally squeezing one off in sheer frustration.
I missed.
"Stop," screamed a woman's voice.
We all turned to see Chloe on the porch, her son cradled against her. Marie stood next to her, trying to draw her back inside by the elbow, but she shook off the healer.
"Jackson, get inside," Chloe said, fear and anger making her voice quiver.
The wolf shook his head.
"Now. It's over."
"Ah, finally someone with more than two brain cells. Yes, wolf. It is over, but I don't mind killing you, if you insist." Zion leered at Jackson, his mouth ringed in blood.
Jackson shook his head again. I looked from Chloe to Jackson and back again. Jackson was already tired, and Zion had proven to be the stronger opponent. He'd had too much shifter blood. No one could take him, least of all me.
"Go inside," I said.
Jackson shifted, his naked human form revealing blood and bruises. "No. He's a threat to our pack."
"He wants me. I'll go with him." My gut tightened. I didn't want to go, but I wouldn't let Zion tear through Huntsville either. He was here because of me. This was my mistake to pay for, not theirs.
"See how easy it is to say yes? Now, get rid of the gun and come over here," said Zion.
Biting my lip, I dropped the gun and kicked it away. Then, my stomach a pit of nausea, I went to Zion. He tossed Cal's body away and grabbed me, making me his new human shield. My life was going well. Getting alphas killed and becoming a slave again at best, or Zion's next murder victim at worst.
Dragging me with him, he darted over to the side of the yard. "Pick it up," he hissed in my ear.
I looked down and spotted a red gas can.
Zion nudged me toward it. "Go on, grab it."
I grabbed it. Liquid sloshed inside, pulling at my grip. It was heavy enough to be full.
He flicked a lighter behind me, the flame dancing in the dark night. "I found some fun in the garage."
"Gasoline." Marie breathed the word with horror. "He's going to start a fire."
"I already said I would go with you," I said. "You can stop now."
"No. I'll deal with him." Jackson moved toward us.
"No. He killed Cal," I said, my voice thick with tears. I knew what I had to do, but I didn't want to do it. Saving them meant the end of me. "If he can kill one alpha, he's strong. He could kill you. I-I can't live with that."
Jackson's jaw went tight, and his eyes narrowed, but he backed off, moving closer to his mate. "Are you sure?"
"Just let me go." I curled my one hand into a fist to hide how much I was trembling. Offering myself up as a sacrifice wasn't my style. I was the one who ran off and did drugs. Standing my ground was new. And terrifying.
"Well said, Adele." Zion's voice filled my ear, raising goose bumps up and down my spine. He wrapped a bony hand around my upper arm, and yanked me after him. At the foot of the porch, he took the red can from me and threw it onto the porch. It landed with a dull clang on its side, spilling gas all over the place. Marie, Jackson and Chloe retreated into the house.
"No!" I screamed, fighting his grip on me. "You got what you wanted." Fucking vampires. I should've known better than to trust them. Especially the one who'd run the blood slave ring that had ensnared so many other shifters.
Flicking the lighter, he tossed it after the can. The gas ignited with a loud 'poof.' Inside, I could see Marie, Chloe and Jackson running toward the back of the house.
Zion dragged me into the night. "Let's go."
I kicked at him, desperate to get away and go back to save whoever I could. "There's a baby in there."
"Then they'd better get out," he said.
I elbowed him in the gut and he grunted at the impact. Not wanting to waste any advantage, I stomped on his foot. Bones cracked and I smiled.
Zion's grip didn't falter. "Stop fighting me."
"I'm not yours. You don't own me," I spat at him.
"I seem to recall paying quite a bit to make you mine." He dragged me through the forest with resolute strength that resisted my every attempt to stop him.
"That wasn't legal." I kicked dirt and any loose sticks I could find at him, but he kept us moving faster than I could take aim.
"Nothing worth having ever is in this world. If you wait for what you want to be legal, you'd better be immortal because that's how long it will take."
"You are immortal, asshole."
"Yes, but I'm also impatient." He whipped me around so we were face-to-face. "It's not about good fighting and evil. It's patience against time that's the real fight. How long can you wait for happiness? Two weeks? A month? A year? Forever? I'm not a forever kind of vampire."
I shoved him into a tree trunk, still trying to break free. I was a werewolf, damn it. I wasn't helpless. In fact, if I just shifted, I would have a better chance of escape. My wolf didn't hesitate to jump through my skin. I let her flow out of me, anger fueling the shift, making it faster than usual.
My body condensed itself into my wolf, becoming smaller but stronger. Zion almost lost his grip. My arm narrowed into a foreleg, threatening to slip from his hand. At the last second, he caught my paw in a crushing grip.
Now it was his turn to smile at the sound of cracking bones.
Ignoring the pain in my foreleg, I lunged for his face, teeth snapping, but he leaned back and half turned, deflecting me with his shoulder. Undeterred, I leaped again, and this time, my face met his fist.
Sharp pain shot through my nose like lightning filled with glass shards. I couldn't smell anything and my eyes only saw dots that spun in dizzying circles. All I could do was feel the hurt. The hit also slammed me to the ground and I laid there too stunned to fight back.
This gave Zion the next move. Clamping his hand on the scruff of my neck, he lifted me like a puppy until we were eye to eye.
I gnashed my teeth at him, but he held me away from his body and out of reach.
"I knew you could eat my face off, but I didn't think you would actually try. I thought you'd be happy to be resc
ued."
A growl rumbled deep in my throat. This was a rescue? On what planet?
"Come on, she-wolf." He gave me a shake hard enough to rattle my teeth in my head. "You don't belong here. You're not the kind of wolf who belongs in a pack."
My eyebrows shot up. What?
"There's a whole world out there," Zion said. "It could be yours, if you're brave enough to take a bite."
He dropped me to the ground then, and before I could get my feet under me, he fell on top of me, pinning me down. Nuzzling away the fur at my neck, his fangs pierced my skin. It pinched for a second, until his power smoothed out any pain, replacing it with a boneless lassitude. My body went slack, and I felt weightless, as if all the worries and pressures of my life had been taken away.
I closed my eyes and sank into the familiar feeling. This was so much better than any drug.
Crap.
No.
I had to fight this.
If he kept going, I would be under his control. I couldn't go back to that. For one, it was an easy way to end up dead. And I refused to be a slave again. As much as I hated being an addict, the cure wasn't becoming a slave.
Once again, I cursed my stupidity at being taken in by the ad on the deep net site used by shifters. It had promised me everything. I should've known it was too good to be true, but I'd wanted to change so badly, I'd fallen for the sales pitch.
I always fell for trouble.
Got an abusive asshole friend? I'd date him.
A drug that had killed almost everyone who'd taken it? I'd try it.
If I didn't do better this time, I might never see another full moon. I bucked under Zion and shifted so I could use my hands to push him away. Of course, that meant I was naked—my clothes had been destroyed in the shift— and even more vulnerable to his very sharp teeth. He held on through my shift, too, anchoring himself with his fangs.
Punching at his head, I attempted to dislodge him, but the languor that came with his bite made it difficult to be effective. My arms flailed, weak as a newborn's.
I reached deep, looking for the strength and power to fight back. I tapped into the moon and the hum of energy of the Huntsville Pack. Pulling it all into me, I took a deep breath, pleased to find the vampire's effects on me had lessened to a dull roar.
I tried to roll out from under him and fight, but Zion smashed his fist into my still tender face again. Through all that, his fangs stayed planted in my neck like a leech using super glue. Pain turned the world dark and I faded for a moment, which gave him enough time to press his wrist against my mouth.
I came back to myself a moment later, struggling to stay conscious, and found his blood had slipped through my lips to pool on my tongue.
"Swallow," he said.
I shook my head, trying to spit, but he covered my face and nose with a hand, squeezing until I couldn't breathe.
"You can't stop it now, Adele. Just swallow and get it over with." His voice held a crooning note that raised my hackles. With his other hand, he massaged my throat.
Lungs burning, I fought him with everything I had; bucking, twisting, clawing. My wolf raced in my heartbeat, trying to lend me what strength she could, but we couldn't stop the inevitable result of suffocation. I blacked out. Even as I drifted away, I tried to bite his hand to keep his blood from slipping down my throat.
Chapter Fourteen
Adele
"What do you want with me?" I'd woken in a private jet with white leather seats and gold accents. Someone had draped a flannel blanket over me. Black paint covered the windows to keep out the sun, but Zion was up, which meant it was either night or he was one of the rare ones who could stay awake during the day. I tried to remember if I'd ever seen him up during the day, but they'd kept me underground for most of my time in the blood slave ring. I hadn't had much sense of day and night.
"Here are some clothes." Zion threw a shirt and pants at me.
Unwilling to have Zion's eyes on my skin, I pulled the clothes under the blanket. The jeans he'd given me fit pretty well, along with the plain blue T-shirt. How he knew my size or why he flew around with extra clothes were probably questions better left unasked.
Before I faced Zion, I checked in with my wolf. She was quiet in my mind, but if I poked at her, she would lift her head and look at me. The black cloud was there, too, clinging to her in a soft mist. I urged her to shake it off, but she just yawned, unconcerned. The darkness inside me didn't appear to bother her, but it filled me with worry. I couldn't control it, didn't know what it was other than more bad news for my life. Great. Well, at least my wolf was happy.
Leaving my wolf to her own devices, I cast aside the blanket and glared at Zion. "Why come back for me? I wasn't yours, remember? You sold me to Davian. So, what do you want with me?"
Davian's name sent a pang through me. We'd bonded in a way I didn't think was possible. Why couldn't he have been the one to come back for me? I would have welcomed that.
Zion gave a sly smile and his dark eyes glittered like light shining off a sharpened blade. "Many reasons. Not the least of which is Davian never finished paying your price. And, curiously, you were the only one to survive at the club. Why was that?"
"I-I don't know," I hedged, not wanting to reveal how Davian had protected me.
"I think we should find out. Don't you?"
"It's done and over, Zion. You can't go back," I said, avoiding his gaze. We'd exchanged blood, which meant he could force me to tell him every detail of that night if he wanted to.
"But it's not done, Adele. There are some pretty serious accusations being made against me."
"Well, yeah. You were running a blood slave ring. What did you think would happen? No one was going to throw you a parade."
He stiffened. "I provided a valuable service to the packs of the world. I kept riff-raff like you off the streets and under control. And remember, you signed up for it."
"I signed up for rehab, you jackass. Not slavery."
He waved a dismissive hand. "Spoken like a true addict."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Addicts don't see the world correctly. Why is it, Adele, that you're always the wronged one? That I have to be the bad guy? Hmm?" He shook his head. "It's self-serving addict thinking. I gave you a way to get clean. One that would work for the rest of your life." He reached out and captured my chin in his hand, forcing my head to turn until our gazes met. "Why don't you tell me everything you remember?"
Oh, shit. I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to dodge him, but I'd already been caught. The crush of his power took my breath away and every fiber of my being strained not to obey his command. How much would I be forced to say? Could I hold anything back? I had to protect Davian. He'd been undercover and exposing him would put him in danger.
Zion gave me a little shake, his fingers tightening on my chin. "Tell me, Adele. You can't hide from me."
"You accused Davian of betraying you and then threw me against the wall." I closed my eyes trying to organize the little I remembered into a pattern that made sense. Giving up, I said, "I woke up in the air duct later. I have no idea what happened." My sister had found me not long after I regained consciousness, and if she hadn't, I might've blown up with the strip club. The whole building went up right after we drove out of the parking lot. Someone had wanted to hide the evidence. I looked at Zion. "Did you blow up the club?"
He let me go, leaning back into his seat. He drummed his fingers on his armrest. "I know you like to blame me for everything, but Davian ran that ring."
"No, he didn't." I frowned at him.
He caught my chin again and held me in place, his gaze pinning me down. I squirmed and tried to look away, but he dug his fingers deeper into me. The look he shot at me held so much power, it felt like someone had taken an anvil to my face. "Yes. He did. He was the one running the whole thing. You saw him sell shifters. You were his slave."
"I-I..." My thoughts scrambled, suddenly unable to spot the truth.
&n
bsp; He squeezed my chin tighter, fingernails threatening to break my skin, and the anvils became boulders that pummeled my brain like an avalanche of hail. His power obliterated thought, wiped me clean as a baby who hadn't opened its eyes to see the world yet.
"Say it," he growled at me.
"It was Davian. He was behind the whole thing."
Zion let me go and smiled, the gesture thin and sharp. "Good. There will be a hearing in a few days. You tell them that and nothing else, do you understand?"
I nodded. "What else would I say? It's the truth." Something beat in my head trying to tell me something important, but I ignored it because it wasn't real.
"Exactly."
"So, now what? I told you everything I know. What else do you want from me?"
"I don't know, but I'll think of something." He flashed a smile that sent a shiver up my spine. "Your blood is good now that you're clean. I can sell you for a good profit."
"I'm not yours to sell."
He reached out and covered my hand with his cold, clammy one. "I still have your contract. You're mine, Adele."
I moved my hand out from under his. Confusion muddled my mind. "I was Davian's, not yours."
"True, but I have the contract now."
"That can't be legal." I rubbed my head. It felt like I'd pulled something in my brain. Ugh. This was not the time for a tension headache.
"I think you'll find that it is under vampire law."
"You're not making sense. Why would the Vampire Council condemn what Davian did if it was legal?"
"Because they got caught." He laughed. "You have a lot to learn about vampire politics. It's not what's right, it's not what the law says, it's who you know and what you decide to tell them."
I blinked at that and rearranged my understanding of the world. Vampires were cool with blood slaves. Anything else was lip service. Well, crap. Did shifters even know any of this? "How did you find me?"
"It was easy enough. I saw you leaving the club right before it blew up."
"You were there? Wasn't it daylight?"
"No. I wasn't there. Not then."
"How did you see me then?" I gestured to the blacked out windows on the plane.